The 2008-09 year marks the
Silver Anniversary of the Columbia-Barnard Athletics Consortium. In a
year-long celebration, Columbia Athletics will pay tribute to the
administrators, coaches and student-athletes who have brought
distinction to Columbia Athletics. During the next few months, gocolumbialions.com will post profiles on the former student-athletes named to the "25 Most Influential" list and the Silver Anniversary honor roll. The first in the series is former women's basketball player Ellen Bossert '86CC.
Ellen Bossert is an accomplished woman ? mother of two, a classical pianist, Vice President at Philips Color Kinetics and an All-American basketball player at Columbia in the mid-1980s.
This year, Bossert is honored as one of the 25 most influential female student-athletes of the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium. In October 2008, she was inducted to the Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame.
Bossert's Columbia story began in 1983 when she transferred from Hamilton College as a sophomore. She was reticent about choosing Columbia initially since her father Walter ?54CC, her uncle and grandfather all were graduates of the University and the younger Bossert did not necessarily want to follow in the family's footsteps. Upon further exploration however, Bossert immediately knew it was the right decision. “When I visited Columbia before I transferred,” Bossert recalled, “there was just a good vibe.I loved the city and everything Columbia had to offer.”
One of those offerings was Columbia's women's basketball program, which began playing under the name Columbia in the 1983-84 season, the year before Bossert's first season, under veteran head coach Nancy Kalafus.
Bossert has very positive memories of her playing days under Kalafus and for good reason. “She let us play and we all appreciated her for this” said Bossert. “Nancy reinforced the fundamentals and provided a slate of play parameters but also allowed us the freedom to improvise when presented the opportunity. Nancy's coaching philosophy and the team's composition was a winning combination.”
In Bossert's two seasons at Columbia, the Lions had a 40-13 record, including a 21-6 mark in 1985-86, when Columbia won the New York state championship and advanced to the Division III NCAA Tournament, where the Lions defeated Buffalo State, 89-73, in the third place game, paced by Bossert's 38 points, just one shy of her single-game record of 39, set earlier in the season. A year later, Columbia would begin Division I and Ivy League play.
More than twenty years later, Bossert still holds single-season records in points (598), rebounds (355), field goals (235), field goal percentage (.556) and free throws (128). Although she was just a two-year player at Columbia, Bossert also broke the 1,000-point mark and ranks fifth all-time in scoring with 1,068 points during her two incredible seasons.
One of the pioneers of Columbia women's athletics, Bossert has seen female student-athletes come a long way since playing for a transitional Division I program during the mid-1980s.
Last season, Columbia's women's basketball had its best Ivy League season in the program's 21-year history. The team posted a 7-7 league record after challenging for first place earlier in the season with the program's best winning streak within the league.
“Paul Nixon has brought great energy and a winning attitude to the program,” said Bossert, who frequently keeps in touch with the Columbia head coach. “He is obviously a skilled coach but it's his commitment to galvanizing the right habits and attitude in his players as well as building a sustainably strong program that sets him apart”.
Based in Boston, Bossert has been able to regularly attend Columbia's annual meeting with Harvard, one of the Ivy League's traditional powerhouses. The Crimson have had the Lions' number in the past, but last year's matchup was a classic back-and-forth battle that came down to the final possession with Harvard pulling out a 71-70 win.
“I was at the last Harvard game,” said Bossert. “It was a heartbreaker but now the program is competitive with those teams at the top of the Ivy League.”
Paul Nixon first met Bossert when she returned for a 20th anniversary celebration of the 1985-86 season.
“That team is the all-time winningest Columbia women's basketball team with a 21-6 record, and Ellen was a huge part of their success,” Nixon said. "I've met several of Ellen's teammates now in the past three seasons, and they have all talked about how her contribution took the program to an unprecedented level of success,” Nixon continued. “We are striving today to get the program back to that level of competitiveness.”
It was Bossert's mid-80s teams who laid the groundwork for the present and future successes of Columbia's women's basketball program and according to the Columbia Hall of Famer, it could not have been done without the support system around her. When asked what was her best moment at Columbia, Bossert simply said “the people.”
“I look back and really appreciate the amazing people I met at Columbia,” Bossert explained. “From great friends to amazing coaches and teachers ? they all made me love the school and cherish the experience for years to come.”
Bossert currently works as Vice President of Marketing at Philips Color Kinetics in Boston. Bossert describes marketing as “the most creative discipline in business,” where she helps spearhead the conversion of the world's lighting from incandescent, halogen, and fluorescent to solid-state solutions.
